COURSE INFORMATION FOR PHL-1002

    ETHICS

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course examines moral principles and moral issues.  The course focuses on the nature and ground of moral obligation.  It introduces major ethical systems and tests those against selected contemporary moral problems.

3 credit hours

 

Syllabus Spring 2010

  Assignment: Critical Reasoning
Case Analysis: Relativism Assignment: Relativism
Case Analysis: Utilitarianism Assignment: Utilitarianism
Case Analysis: Kant Assignment: Kant and Deontology
Case Analysis: Divine Command Theory  
Case Analysis: Natural Law Theory  
Case Analysis: Virtue Ethics Assignment: DCT, NLT and Virtue Ethics

Guidelines for Applied Ethics Paper

 

Power Point on Reasoning Fallacies    Power Point on Evaluating Statistical Data    Power Point on Loaded Language

 

Recommended Reading: Ethical Reasoning

Martha C. Nussbaum Poetic Justice 1995
Marvin T. Brown The Ethical Process 1996, 2003
Anthony Weston A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox 2001, 2007
Julian Baggini and Peter S. Fosl The Ethics Toolkit 2007
Anthony Weston Creative Problem-Solving in Ethics 2007
J. D. Trout The Empathy Gap (re-titled Why Empathy Matters for paperback) 2009

Recommended Reading: Ethical Theory   

Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics c.300 BCE
Immanuel Kant Lectures on Ethics 1775-80
Soren Kierkegaard Fear and Trembling 1843
John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism 1861
Friedrich Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil 1886
Friedrich Nietzsche On the Genealogy of Morals 1887
G. E. Moore Ethics 1915
W. D. Ross The Right and the Good 1930
Reinhold Niebuhr An Interpretation of Christian Ethics 1935
Simone de Beauvoir The Ethics of Ambiguity 1948
J. J. C. Smart & Bernard Williams Utilitarianism: For and Against 1973
Peter Singer Practical Ethics 1979, 1993
Richard Taylor Ethics, Faith and Reason 1985
John Paul II Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) 1995
Peter Singer How Are We to Live? 1995
Judith Jarvis Thomson & Gilbert Harman Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivism 1996
Thomas L. Carson & Paul K. Moser, editors Morality and the Good Life 1997
Paul K. Moser & Thomas L. Carson, editors Moral Relativism 2001

Recommended Readings: Skepticism about Ethics

Friedrich Nietzsche Daybreak 1881
Bernard Williams Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy 1985
John D. Caputo Against Ethics 1993
James Morrow The Philosopher's Apprentice 2008

Recommended Readings: Applied Ethical Issues   

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts 1750
Bertrand Russell Marriage and Morals 1929
Bertrand Russell The Conquest of Happiness 1930
Albert Camus Reflections on the Guillotine 1957
Robert Paul Wolff, Barrington Moore Jr. & Herbert Marcuse A Critique of Pure Tolerance 1965
Peter Singer Animal Liberation 1975, 1990
Jonathan Glover Causing Death and Saving Lives 1977
Jim Mason & Peter Singer Animal Factories 1980
Michael Bayles Reproductive Ethics 1984
James Rachels The End of Life 1986
Christine Overall Ethics and Human Reproduction 1987
Richard D. Mohr Gays/Justice 1988
Susan Sherwin No Longer Patient 1992
Richard D. Mohr A More Perfect Union 1994
Jesse Jackson Legal Lynching 1996
Louis P. Pojman & Robert Westmoreland, editors Equality 1997
Gregory E. Pence Who's Afraid of Human Cloning? 1998
Jeffrey H. Reiman & Louis P. Pojman The Death Penalty 1998
Alastiar MacIntyre Dependent Rational Animals 1999
Peter Singer Unsanctifying Human Life 1999
Thomas S. Szasz Fatal Freedom 1999
Michael Warner The Trouble with Normal 1999
Robert Jay Lifton & Greg Mitchell Who Owns Death? 2000
Kory Schaff, editor Philosophy and the Problems of Work 2001
Josh Sugarman Every Handgun is Aimed at You 2001
Alan G. Soble Pornography, Sex and Feminism 2002
Jennifer A. Parks No Place Like Home? 2003
John Harris On Cloning 2004
Jonathan Rauch Gay Marriage 2004
Jerold L. Waltman The Case for the Living Wage 2004
David G. Myers & Letha Dawson Scanzoni What God Has Joined Together? 2005
Rudolph J. Gerber & John M. Johnson The Top Ten Death Penalty Myths 2007
Anthony Coady & Igor Primoratz, editors Military Ethics 2008

Recommended Readings: Social/Political Philosophy

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Discourse on the Origin of Inequality 1755
Immanuel Kant Perpetual Peace 1795
John Stuart Mill On Liberty 1859
Aime Cesaire Discourse on Colonialism 1955
H. L. A. Hart Law, Liberty, and Morality 1963
Joel Feinberg Social Philosophy 1973
Peter Singer Democracy and Disobedience 1973
Michael Walzer Just and Unjust Wars 1977, 2000
Jeffrey Reiman The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison 1979, 2007
Joel Feinberg Offense to Others 1985
Susan Moller Okin Justice, Gender, and the Family 1989
Iris Marion Young Justice and the Politics of Difference 1990
William A. Galston Liberal Purposes 1991
Elizabeth Smith & H. Gene Blocker, editors Applied Social and Political Philosophy 1994
Will Kymlicka Multicultural Citizenship 1995
Claudia Card The Unnatural Lottery 1996
Judith P. Butler Excitable Speech 1997
Charles W. Mills The Racial Contract 1997
Jonathan Glover Humanity 1999
Susan Moller Okin et al Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women? 1999
Iris Marion Young Inclusion and Democracy 2000
Michael Ignatieff et al Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry 2001
Peter Singer One World 2002
Louis P. Pojman Global Political Philosophy 2003
Michael Ignatieff The Lesser Evil 2004
Cornel West Democracy Matters 2004
Richard J. Bernstein The Abuse of Evil 2005
Gregory A. Boyd The Myth of a Christian Nation 2005
Bill Ong Hing Deporting Our Souls 2006
Martha C. Nussbaum Liberty of Conscience 2008

last updated 12/16/09